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The day my husband and I became millionaires was a lot like any other day. He went off to work, grumbling about the commute. I was fretting about our utility bill and decided to check our personal finance software to see how much more we were paying than the previous year. While I fiddled with the numbers, I told the software to update our account balances. Lo and behold, the net worth column showed seven figures where before there had been six. There was no popping of champagne corks, no trips to the Continent, no quitting of jobs. The fact...

SACRAMENTO - After decades of wealthy and wealthier candidates running for governor, voters may this year glimpse the future of California politics: Mega-millionaires -- perhaps only mega-millionaires -- cracking open their checkbooks for a chance to run the Golden State. California has had its share of the rich running for office, but never quite like this year's governor's race, in which all three major candidates have amassed personal fortunes. Combined, movie star Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- believed to be the richest governor in the nation -- former eBay executive turned Controller Steve Westly and former real estate developer turned state...

Republican Congressional candidate and millionaire Eric Roach on Friday notified the Federal Election Commission and competing candidates in the 50th District race that he has surpassed the self-funding limit that triggers the so-called "Millionaire's Amendment." That little-known rule allows competing candidates, in some cases, to triple the limit on individual campaign donations. In Roach's notification, he reports that as of Thursday, he had spent $750,000 on the April 11 special election where voters will pick a replacement for former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned from office in November after pleading guilty in federal court to receiving more than...

(IsraelNN.com) Maariv daily reports that a millionaire businessman from Ra'anana has offered to donate $20,000 to Land of Israel protestors in order to purchase equipment, including helmets, batons and shields for use in defending themselves during the next expulsion attempt. "When I saw what happened at Amona, that the balance of power was unequal, I didn't see police, I saw masked faces with shields and helmets and I want the settlers to have them too," the man told Maariv. "I don't want the settlers to attack the expellers, I want them to be able to defend themselves," he emphasized. The...

The number of millionaires living in the Boston area, already one of the wealthiest regions in the United States, will surge 50 percent over the next five years, according to data from two wealth management companies that have studied the issue. For a city that as recently as 30 years ago struggled with a decaying urban core, the expected influx is one more sign of its dramatic turnaround. By 2009, the number of millionaire households in the region is expected to increase to 88,000, up from 58,000 in 2004. The projected growth rate parallels the national average. But because Boston...

Till death do us part? An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-year-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.  The groom, a resident of the Eilat dolphin reef, met Tendler 15 years ago, when she first visited the resort. The British rock concert producer took a liking to the dolphin and has made a habit of traveling to Eilat two or three times a year and spending time with her underwater sweetheart.  "The peace and...

FIU'S BIGGEST DONOR WAS A BOY WITH HOLEY SHOES The man who pledged FIU's single largest donation is filled with ideas and energy, yet he hasn't forgotten the tattered shoes of his boyhood. BY GEORGIA TASKER Herbert Wertheim is an inventor, pilot, philosopher, philanthropist and university trustee. He also is a charming storyteller. ''Telling stories produces endorphins in me,'' he said. ``I love my life.'' As the self-made multimillionaire optometrist/entrepreneur who has pledged $20 million to Florida International University for its proposed medical school, his fast-paced stories reflect a many-faceted man. He has worked his way up from poverty to...

History will forever record Elizabeth Brooks' bat mitzvah as "Mitzvahpalooza." For his daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Tom Petty to Aerosmith. I hear it was garish display of rock 'n' roll idol worship for which the famously irascible CEO of DHB Industries, a Westbury-based manufacturer of bulletproof vests, sent his company jet to retrieve Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry...

It was just a few months ago that 21-year-old Alex Tew of Great Britain was stumped about how to pay for college. He'd filled a notebook with ideas before jotting down this simple, if rather audacious, query to himself: How Can I Become a Millionaire?In the annals of entrepreneurship, what followed is an instructional tale of how a brainstorm, coupled with the Internet's powerful word-of-mouth culture, can set a trend in motion with lightning speed. Mr. Tew says his strategy was to find an idea simple to understand and cheap to set up, with a catchy name that would garner...

What do you get the Muscovite who has everything? A million-dollar pen? A new head of hair? An island? A suit made, literally, of money? The excesses of Russia's super-rich went on display this weekend when a "millionaire's fair" opened on the outskirts of Moscow, catering to the ostentatious tastes of the city's 88,000 dollar millionaires and 33 billionaires. An estimated 7,000 ordinary Muscovites a day paid £20 to get a glimpse of the eccentric lifestyles of the minority who are drowning in oil money. On show were the trappings of the immodest: a helicopter, a Lamborghini, a diamond ring...

Millionaire charged with taking kickbacks from teachers' pension fund By Andy Shaw Stuart Levine August 3, 2005 — A politically connected businessman has been indicted for a second time on federal fraud charges. Stuart Levine is linked to a scam involving the Illinois Teachers Pension Fund along with one of the Democratic party's biggest fund raisers, Joseph Cari. The message from the feds Wednesday is crystal clear: Chicago City Hall is only one of the fronts in the war on government corruption. It also appears to be rampant at the boards and commissions that oversee billions of dollars in state...

John Roberts is a $6 million man, with a fancy golf club membership and some hefty investments, according to a financial statement filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee. The 83-page document released Tuesday shows Roberts' home in the fashionable Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Md., is worth $1.3 million. His investment portfolio includes $291,200 in XM Satellite Radio, $264,000 in Dell computers and $106,553 in Texas Instruments. His total worth is $6 million, despite the big pay cut he took in 2003 when he left the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where he was a partner earning in...

http://www.chosun.com/international/news/200505/200505010310.html/begin my translation26-year-old female office worker is the 8th richest person in ChinaA Major shareholder of Ping-an Insurance.... wealth totaling 637 million dollarsCould be a proxy for 'another figure'Beijing, Cho Joong-shik jscho@chosun.com05/01/05A 26-year-old woman became the 8th richest figure in China, sparking all kinds of speculation.'Xin-cai-fu,'  a Chinese business magazine which publishes the list of wealthiest people in China every year, announced on Apr. 28 the '500 wealthiest people' in China. Among them is the 8th richest figure, a young woman named 'Liu Fang,' whom Chinese have never heard of. Liu fang is the owner of Yuan-xin-hang Investment Co. which has 6.13%...

Grounded: Millionaire John Gilmore stays close to home while making a point about privacy He's unable to travel because he refuses to present a government-approved ID Sunday, February 27, 2005By Dennis Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette SAN FRANCISCO -- John Gilmore's splendid isolation began July 4, 2002, when, with defiance aforethought, he strolled to the Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland Airport and presented his ticket. Dennis Roddy, Post-GazetteJohn Gilmore, beside a graffiti-covered wall, has his morning coffee at a shop that's one block from his San Francisco home. The Bradford native doesn't drive and has other travel restrictions, thanks to his challenge...

That's what I want to know. Their featured advertisement today reads "Secrets Of Millionaire Conservatives Revealed", so I decided to take a peek out of curiosity. It turns out to be Mike Litman promoting some new book that claims to change lazy procrastinators into overnight (or 30-day) successes by giving them the "secrets" of the rich. Notable quotables: "just reading of the table of contents would be enough to shake the laziest person alive from their deepest slumber." "Look, no one knows more than me that some people hate to read. I hear you. So what I’ve done is give...

SACRAMENTO - He's used his millions to benefit exotic show horses, a home for retired chimpanzees - and California's actor-governor. William Armsted Robinson has quietly become one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top donors, periodically trading off the pinnacle with San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and Spanish language television entrepreneur Jerry Perenchio. Stockton real estate developer Spanos and Univision owner Perenchio are high-profile businessmen with long-term interests in California. But Robinson is an elusive, reclusive man whose first major foray into influencing politics is the $650,000 he has given Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger fund-raiser Marty Wilson describes Robinson as a "very private,...

Are you ready to play, WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE, the 2004 Election Edition For $100, How many laws that get passed are “permissive” (giving people freedom to do something if they wish) and how many are “restrictive” (requiring performance or forbidding it)? A. Most laws are permissive, because America is the Land of the Free B. Most laws are restrictive, because government is only interested in making us behave, speak, and believe as they want us to C. It’s about 50-50 D. Most laws are permissive, because after 200 years of passing restrictive laws in 50 states and...

Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip corporations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an analysis of public records shows. The $1 billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are widely cited in news stories about her husband, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their assets are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy and will probably...

This should be a great protest rally, folks. We are joining with other groups, and people are coming from as far away as West Virginia and DC.Join Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, Vietnamese-Americans Against John Kerry, and several other groups from around town.Date: Saturday, February 28Time: 12 noonPlace: Across from John Kerry's NYC headquarters, 373 Park Avenue South, between 26th and 27th Streets, NYCHere's the first thread on this protest.The weather is supposed to be absolutely fantastic.Use this thread for hitching rides, discussing sign ideas, and any other input on the protest.I will be scouting the area for a good...